Government and Opposition on different paths with the Public Accounts Committees

After a year of criticism from the opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party on establishing a Public Accounts Committee, the Government has dismissed the criticism, claiming creating such a committee is not its responsibility.

At the Prime Minister’s monthly media briefing Wednesday, April 20, Attorney General Vincent Byron responded to a reporter’s question by stating it is not the responsibility of the Government to have that committee established.

‘This falls under the rules of Parliament and it really falls to the speaker to be able to set up these committees,” he said. “It is not the role of the Executive to do so. We wait on the speaker to give us the guidelines, rules and regulations.’

Opposition member of Parliament and Representative for Constituency No. 3 Konris Maynard again questioned the committee’s absence. Speaking on his party’s weekly radio program ‘Issues,’ he said if the Government was to establish the Parliamentary Committees it would give the opposition the oversight to make sure the Government of National Unity would be kept in check and would prove the Government was working in a transparent and accountable manner.

“You see this government is only going to talk transparency, they are only going to talk accountability, but they never allow us the opposition to have those particular frameworks in place to ensure we have a well serving and meaningful Government in place,” he said.

Mr. Byron said they are waiting for an official address from the speaker of the National Assembly on how to proceed with the Public Accounts Committee.